Billy Kimber

Billy Kimber (1882-1919) was a British gangster and businessman from Birmingham who led the Birmingham Boys gang during the early 20th century. He took over the city during the 1910s, only to be murdered by up-and-coming Romani gangster Tommy Shelby in 1919 during a war between his gang and the Peaky Blinders.

Biography
Billy Kimber was born on Summer Lane in Aston, Birmingham, England in 1882, and he was raised in poverty. He took to the streets as a gangster, coming to lead the Birmingham Boys and expanding his gang's activities to Uttoxeter and Leeds. He became the biggest organized crime boss in the United Kingdom, and he set up a secondary base in Islington, London to concentrate on the racetrack industry in southern England. Kimber went from being a crime boss to becoming a legitimate businessman who dominated the racetrack industry of early-20th century England. In 1919, he and a few of his lieutenants visited the Peaky Blinders boss Tommy Shelby and his brothers at The Garrison Pub in Birmingham, where a furious Kimber insulted the brothers' Romani ancestry and warned them that he would have them shot at a post for fixing races. However, Tommy Shelby reminded Kimber that they shared a common enemy in the Lee Family, and Kimber reluctantly decided to ally with the Peaky Blinders against the Lees. At the Cheltenham races, Shelby agreed to provide security to Kimber's bookmakers in exchange for legal betting pitches; Kimber also asked to have Shelby's date Grace Burgess for two hours, but Shelby later prevented Kimber from raping her after claiming that she had syphilis.

Later, Inspector Chester Campbell of the Birmingham Police informed Kimber that Shelby planned to betray him on Black Star Day, so Kimber and his men headed to the lane in front of the Garrison Pub for a gang war against the Italian Sabini Gang and the Peaky Blinders. Although Kimber had more men and weapons, the Peaky Blinders had a Lewis machine-gun. Kimber started the fight by shooting Daniel Owen dead while attempting to shoot Shelby, and Shelby then shot Kimber once in the head, killing him.